I bought one of these reels just to play around with. There has been a lot of negative talk about the canyon company. To be honest I think it is a great reel. I'm going to send it to Mr tani for a cleaning and just to see what he thinks about it. The internals on it looked to be great quality and the double stainless dogs are never a bad thing along with and IAR bearing. The reel put out 45 pounds of locked down drag at the top of the spool. Really smooth around 38 Pounds. The free spool is great. I really have no complaints about these reels at all. Oh and the customer service is top notch. I called and got to talk to the owner. I wanted a new drag plate just for a backup. He sent me one free of charge. He is the internals I'll get some more pictures up tonight.
(http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab74/careychristopher41/Mobile%20Uploads/20140513_194335_zps407ijjhb.jpg) (http://s851.photobucket.com/user/careychristopher41/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140513_194335_zps407ijjhb.jpg.html)
(http://i851.photobucket.com/albums/ab74/careychristopher41/Mobile%20Uploads/20140513_194356_zpsrdiba6eu.jpg) (http://s851.photobucket.com/user/careychristopher41/media/Mobile%20Uploads/20140513_194356_zpsrdiba6eu.jpg.html)
All the ones I have serviced were rock solid with the double dogs just like the International and Shimano trolling reels.
They are great reels in my opinion. I don't know why they get such a bad rep. I own 2 hs-15 s along with the hs-18 and I'm looking at getting an ex-16 2 speed here soon. I love my Penns don't get me wrong. But penn doesn't offer lever drag reels in these smaller sizes